Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical conference preparation apparatus for efficiently preparing for a medical conference, and more particularly for preparing conference materials.
Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, many hospitals hold a medical conference in which doctors and medical staffs related to a target patient examine operative procedures prior to an operation. In the medical conference, the participants first confirm basic patient information and a Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan (SOAP) description of an electronic chart (electronic medical record). Then, the participants confirm an affected region while viewing Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) images on a Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) viewer. Further, the participants refer to an examination report on radiogram diagnosis and pathology diagnosis by using a diagnostic reporting system.
In this case, however, during the conference, the participants need to open the page of the target patient in the electronic chart and also to activate the PACS viewer and other various material browsing applications each time. Thus, the conference cannot be smoothly advanced. There is a problem that a doctor in charge of the target patient cannot take much time to prepare for the conference because he or she is very busy. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-43951 discusses a medical conference support system.
With the medical conference support system discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-43951, however, in addition to regular medical care and diagnosis, a doctor in charge needs to take much time to prepare for the conference particularly to prepare conference materials. For this reason, it has been impossible to easily prepare conference materials at the same timing as viewing a material during medical care and diagnosis.